An Alternative
by WildButterflies
Summary: What if Kenshin had never joined Katsura? In a time where men control the fate of women, Kaoru is the daughter of a Lord Samurai in the service of the Shogun. In a world like this, what is Kaoru to do when she finds an unconscious man outside her home? -Definitely not historically accurate
1. Chapter 1

So don't expect this to follow anything, make any sense, or even take history into account.

This one is a wild woman seed.

More of a tester really- just seeing how it does

And to those going my god woman where are the rest of our updates!? The answer to your inquiry is that I'm wanting to rewrite the first 6 chapters of eien so badly... . As for tower, it's slowly coming to me. Slowly. And for the historical one? I have narrowed it down to thirteen different times, but the problem with trying to be historically accurate is the sheer amount of research that needs to be completed. It also is only planned to be released as a oneshot series. So each must be written completely finished before it's published.

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Kaoru is the daughter of an honorable samurai of Edo elevated to the title of Lord Samurai. Women in her position are required to learn cooking, tea ceremonies, and be married off for the sake of political alliances. It is highly frowned upon for women to learn the arts of men and to have opinions of their own. What's more, women are not allowed to own or govern land.

Koshijirou, however, has never placed restrictions on Kaoru. Except to ban her from the kitchen for the rest of her life. As the most Lord Samurai of Edo, he owns the land the city is built on as well as the province it's located in since the previous lord died without heirs or extended family. They were a gift from the Shogun for his loyalty during the uprising a few years ago.

The Shogun had tried insisting that he move to the province's estate, but his dojo is where his family is buried. It's where his wife died in his arms from a wasting sickness. His Shogun stopped protesting when Koshijirou explained his reasoning. But those reasons weren't the only ones. The uprising had been staged by a group crying for equality and peace.

He almost pitied the Ishin Shishi. They had thought they were doing good and that's something he can respect. But this isn't an era compatible with peace and equality. This is a time that requires steel to protect your home and province. He had taught Kaoru how to handle steel as early as women began learning the 'delicate' arts.

Koshijirou knew that women were viewed as property and therefore were required to be quiet and useful, but his daughter would be special. She would have an opinion of her own, a backbone, and the ability to handle a blade. In what others saw as peculiar or unseemly, he saw as unique and he took pride in her. He had once heard his mother speaking to his wife about why she was expected to learn how to use a dagger. "A woman is like the sharpest of hair pins. Beautiful to behold and an unexpected weapon. Each one is full of deadly possibilities."

Beautiful to behold but full of deadly possibilities, and he aimed to teach his daughter with those things in mind. Kaoru took to swordsmanship like a bird to air or a fish to water. Unlike women of her rank, she didn't see the difference between people of ranks. She had no need to put on airs or have a seemingly airy thoughtless conversation.

Something that her father simultaneously took pride in and worried over. After all that line of thinking was far too close to the Ishin Shishi's than he was comfortable with. Koshijirou sighed and stared off into the distance. Kaoru had mastered his technique this morning, and he's been called off to deal with yet another small uprising. Some of the provinces had gained ideas with the Ishin Shishi's attempt.

Another sigh and he's finished packing for his travel. Really he's getting too old for this. The days between waking up with aching bones are becoming fewer each year. Servants take his bags to pack them onto his carriage. Before being given the province, he'd never wanted servants, but with the responsibilities and she sheer amount of land, he'd had to trust people near his home and Kaoru.

Most would be coming with him except for the two women who would stay with Kaoru, and the guards to protect her. If she needed it. It's far more likely that she'll try protecting her guards than allow them to protect her, and isn't that an amusing picture? She already disciplines some of them with a bokken to the head. "Father!" He hears his daughter's voice when he reaches the gate and half turns in surprise.

She stood there with her head raised high, and her fingers were curled into fists resting on her hips. "You were just going to leave without saying goodbye?" Ah, his angry, defiant, and stubborn daughter. He's definitely raised her right. "Of course not." He tugs her into a bear hug and swings her around.

Definitely far too old to be doing that. "Goodbye dearest daughter. I will bring you a souvenir." His daughter's delighted laughter rang in his ears. "See that you do!" Kaoru continues to wave until the carriage and it's procession had left her sight.

He'll be back. Father always comes back just as he always promises her. She pauses at that thought. He had forgotten to make the promise this time. It was a silly tradition of a young girl that missed her father than anything truly solid.

Superstition presses against the back of her mind and she gags and imprisons it deep within her. After all, silly fears cannot always be destroyed but they can be beaten. Kaoru turns so sharply that her ponytail smacks her in the face as she heads to the gate. She scans the street for witnesses to her embarrassment.

Only the gate and fence to her home as well as a pile of rags against the fence. A pile of rags? Kaoru edges closer to the pile in curiosity. The pile of rags is actually a heavily patched cloak. Really, it should be turned to rags or burned. It's more patch than cloak.

As she moves closer, she discovers it's covering a body in a fetal position. The person is small to have been mistaken as a pile of rags. "Are you alright?" The person doesn't respond so she gently smooths the hood back. Knotted and gnarled dingy red hair and a deep red flush is present on the...

She examines the face and determines that it's a small boned male. His breathing is unsteady and shallow. Kaoru frowns and gauges the distance she would have to carry him. Her guards are waiting for her just inside of the gate. It's far enough to make her cringe but she's pretty sure she can do it. Carefully she gathers him into her arms and lifts.

He's a warm solid weight against her. The warm she can attribute to being feverish, but the solid? To be solid like that he had to be eating and very active. He made a small noise and shifted when she walked through the gate. It's a pretty good indicator that he may wake soon.

Her chief guard, Sano, reaches out to take the man from her. Kaoru's arms are burning from carrying a man almost the same size as herself. "Take him to the guest room." She glances at one of the other guards. "Can you ask Doctor Gensai to come?" The guard leaves without responding.

The guards are a strange mix of masked ninja and two ex-street thugs. The ninjas never speak other than a few words to confirm orders, but the thugs are two friends that were rescued by her father when the Ishin Shishi proclaimed the Sekihotai a false army too early in their plans. They had mistakenly believed the Shogun surrendered to them and quickly tried to turn back on their word in such a way that they wouldn't lose support.

They were the only survivors and ran away from the Shogun's army. A few years later, they turned up on the streets of Edo, and her father offered them a job as guards. They seem more like siblings to Kaoru than bodyguards. "Hey missy, he's in the room now. Ya need help cleaning him up some for Gensai?"

"I- yes." She had almost turned Sano down before remembering that the prep would probably include changing the man's clothes. "Could you change his clothes? I'll bring some water and cloths." Quietly, she pumps water into a bowl.

Ideas for what to do until Gensai comes are running around her mind. Kaoru grabs a cup for feeding him water as an afterthought. Padding carefully down the hall, she drops by the kitchen. The two servants that stay behind with her are Tae and Tsubame. Tae is a woman unlike the stereotypical traditional woman.

She didn't believe in rolling over and doing as told just because someone is a different gender. So when one of her father's friends ran into her on the street, she let him have it which had amused her father who, at the time, was looking for a woman with a backbone to live in his household in place of a mother figure for Kaoru. Tsubame is the last surviving member of a family that promised it's line would serve a master for eternity. She was given to Koshijirou as a sign of loyalty when he received the province.

A small meek girl that her father hoped would gain a backbone through association with Kaoru and Tae. Tsubame glances up at her and smiles sweetly. "Hi Kaoru." Tae stops stirring the miso to whip her head back with a horrified look at the mention of Kaoru's name. She rushes towards the entrance trying to deny Kaoru entry to the kitchen and wields the spoon like a weapon.

"Now Kaoru we agreed after you set fire to the kitchen last time that you were permanently banned from the kitchen." Kaoru frowns at that. That had not been her fault. The fish had burst into flames on their own, and the towel had been too close to the flames completely by accident.

"I found someone collapsed outside the gate and was wondering if you could prepare a bowl of broth." Tae gives her a look of suspicion. "You stay away from my kitchen, and I'll send Tsubame with a bowl later." Kaoru can't stop a giggle from bubbling up and she hurriedly steps away from the kitchen trying to balance the cup and bowl. "He's in the guest room."

She calls out over her shoulder before leaving. Somehow, amazingly, she makes it to the guest room without dropping them. Sano's waiting for her outside the room. "He had a sword on him. I put it in the storage closet. Ya gonna tend to him yourself?"

He glances at her from the side of his eye. Kaoru frowns strongly and glares at Sano. "What, are you trying to say it's improper?" Sano crookedly grins at Kaoru. "Now when did I say anything like that? Just saying you should be careful. What are the odds of a swordsman collapsing outside of your home? Especially when you're known for feeding vagrants."

Kaoru presses her lips together in irritation and Sano waits a few beats longer before pushing off the wall. "Just be careful Kaoru." Kaoru counts as she exhales to try reigning in her temper. A lifetime of flowery snide comments from women have not helped her overly generous helping of temper.

Quietly, she enters the room. Kaoru sets the bowl and cup next to the man and checks his temperature. It's far warmer than before so she quickly dips the cloth in water and wrings it tightly. Gently, she smooths it over his face and neck leaving a light sheen of water to evaporate.

She repeats the action until his fever drops. Where is Doctor Gensai? Kaoru glances at the hallway. No doctor. Sighing, she rubs her eyes and freezes in shock seeing the man's violet eyes focused on her face. "Who are you?"


	2. Chapter 2

Kaoru's lips part. "Kaoru, are you alright? All they said was that you needed my services." The old man, Doctor Gensai, rushed in and started looking Kaoru over. She grabbed his hands and stilled them. "I'm fine. It's him that needs to be looked over." Gensai stared at the man for a moment. "Oh. _Oh!_ "

He descends on the man, briskly checking his pulse and eyes with practiced hands. "Oro?" The man looks mortified when the word slips out as he tries to escape the doctor's hands. Kaoru's all but forgotten until she fails to stifle her giggle. Gensai looks over at her in surprise. "Oh, Kaoru, I need to do a full exam. You'll be needing to leave the room for it." The man's eyes went wide at that and he squeaked. "What?"

Gensai smiles indulgently at the man and reaches to continue the examination. "Well, we need to be sure of why you're sick. Now I could have sworn they said something about someone collapsed? Were you dizzy? Nauseated?" Kaoru slid the shoji shut just as the man starts panicking. "You don't need to do that, _that you do not_!"

What a funny man. Well… What is she supposed to do while waiting? Practicing of course. Practicing is always the answer. Kaoru hums merrily and walks to the dojo. The doctor will take care of the man from here on. The man. Darn, she had completely forgotten to ask his name or answer his question. Kaoru has no clue where he came from or why he collapsed outside her home. Sano said the man had a sword so perhaps he's a ronin.

Maybe she could get him some work? On that thought, she begins her katas. Smoothly transitioning between them with movements as instinctive as breathing. Years of practicing with her father have beat the movements into the very fiber of her being.

She goes to the dojo for everything. If she needs to think clearly or if, like now, she's unsure of what to do with herself. Kaoru could have waited outside the room but it felt like an invasion of privacy. "Um, Kaoru? I have the broth you wanted. I know it took a while, but Tae had to start dinner over after you came to the kitchen."

Kaoru scowled. "N- not that it's your fault. She was so busy threatening you that the soup scalded and burnt to the bottom of the pot from not being stirred." She ignores the throbbing vein in her temple and forces herself to focus on not snapping at Tsubame.

Really she wishes her temper would stay in a box and stop making it difficult to focus. "Thanks, Tsubame." She offers a smile as she takes the broth. Kaoru almost wants to clean up before delivering the broth, but she refuses to pretend to be anything other than what she is. A sweaty violent woman that dresses as a man.

From society's reaction, one would think she was a murderer of children. Doctor Gensai waves her away from the room and further down the hallway. "He's looking a little thin, but a few days of bedrest and some warm good food will fix him right up." Kaoru grins and begins to turn back to the room.

"Oh, I better get this broth into him th-" Doctor Gensai grabs her wrist and interrupts. "I know you don't put much stock in superstition, but with that red hair, people are going to talk if you take him in or keep him here much longer. They're going to say you took in a demon or made a deal with one." They probably will, being the bunch of gossips they are.

"Well I'm already a woman masquerading as a man to them and apparently that's almost as bad as killing children. I doubt making a deal with a demon would hurt my reputation." Doctor Gensai snorts in amusement. "Jumping in the fire headfirst?" With a faint smile, Kaoru replies. "Is there any other way to live life?"

She leaves for the guest room on that note. Violet eyes track her every movement when she enters. "So you look like you could use something hot to eat." Kaoru sets the bowl beside him and gestures. "Broth." The man looks warily between Kaoru and the bowl.

Rolling her eyes Kaoru lifts the bowl to her lips and swallows a mouthful before shoving it in his direction. "See? It's just broth." He makes no move to take it from her. Kaoru adopts the sternest face in her arsenal. "If you cannot eat by yourself, I can feed you." It's difficult to keep the smug grin off her face when he almost snatches the bowl from her after that.

Kaoru watches as he slowly drinks from the bowl, his eyes flitting about the room before settling warily on her. "Where's my sword?" She claps her hands together in remembrance. "Oh! I forgot all about it." Crossing a room, she opens the storage closet to retrieve the sword. "Here you are."

The man grabs the sword from her and starts looking much more secure. The wary looks fade into curiosity tinted with a shade of suspicion. "So the doctor says you should be fine after a few days of bed rest. Do you want some books or something to chase away the boredom?" The man blinks slowly and watches her through his lashes. "What do you want from me?"

Kaoru can't stop herself from gaping at him before realizing that she'll probably be able to catch flies. "Want? Am I supposed to want something from you?" The man doesn't know how to react to this woman, Kaoru. Usually, people assume he's some sort of demon and try to start talking deals.

Kill this person and I'll give you gold and jewels and whatever you could possibly want. Of course refusing seemed to insult them and he would have to fight his way out of the situation. Master hadn't been lying when he said the Hiten Mitsurugi was the strongest of all styles. Every fight, people think he's a demon because they never see him draw his blade. They only see the end, when all are defeated by his blade.

On a good day, they merely screech in terror and run away. Occasionally they try to poison him or something equally as stupid, but this one calls a doctor, feeds him food, and looks at him as though he's insane when he asks her what she wants. "I want you to take a bath and fix your hair. Oh, and what do people call you because I've just been referring to you as the man?"

He looks a little overwhelmed. Without thinking he responds with what people usually scream running away. "Demon." Kaoru looks at him sharply. "I highly doubt you're a demon, and I was looking for a name not… Not a cruel nickname from some oversized children." The man looks confused but slowly answers as though he hasn't said his own name before. "Kenshin."

Kaoru waits for the family name a moment before continuing. "Kenshin…" She trails off meaningfully waiting for him to fill in the blank. "I don't have a family name." Kaoru sits back in surprise. Farmers are the only class that isn't allowed to have a last name but aren't allowed to wield swords.

From the looks of the calluses on his fingers, he's practiced at least a fair amount. The insult of a farmer using a sword is enough to have officials demanding heads. Kenshin needs a family name. Think. What name would work for him? Her eyes land on his red hair.

"Himura. From now on if anyone asks, your family name is Himura." Kenshin frowns heavily at Kaoru. "Scarlet village?" Kaoru resists the urge to roll her eyes. "Your hair is pretty. What's wrong with being named after it?" Startled violet eyes rest on her face and his voice jumps up an octave and cracks. " _Pretty?_ "

Kaoru knows how cruel and superstitious people can be. They probably didn't even bother treating him as a person. She wants to rage and scream at them. Possibly drag out her old bokken and smack them around a bit. Instead, she pastes a smile on her face and slowly pulls a lock of his hair in front of his eyes. "Pretty. See?"

His violet eyes dart between his hair trapped in her fingers and her eyes with a strange intensity. Kaoru-dono thinks his hair is _pretty_. He tries to ignore the flutter that comes with that thought. What he can't ignore is the hope that he can stay somewhere. At least for a short while.


End file.
